Singer 337 Rescued from trash

Oh no put it back or you will catch the dreaded "it followed me home"-itis

you will soon find yourself displaced form your beloved work areas, garage and storage rooms as the beasts fill up every nook and cranny and peole will begin asking you why you need so many machines and you will just shrug with a whimisical look in your eye letting them know you know something they do not or at least scaring them to the point of wanting to give you an intervention.

*but* if you decide to keep it then you can find those accessories and perhaps an entire 337 machine in a nice wooden singer cabinet or case with all the accesories and extras on th-e-bay for a song and smile. :)

there is one there now for $39 - "buy it now". you just have to be patient, something will come along also that machine probably shares accessories with lots of other machines so you do not need to look specifically for 337

You may wnat to go over it and make sure it is worth keeping ?? if someone dropped it and some thing that is not adjustable was bent then you may be better off using it as a parts machine for some other machine. The feed do gbumping the plate is worrisome if it is just loose then no problem but i would investigate why and make sure nothing ids broken inside the bottom of the machine first ? which is where you will need to go to adjust the side to side position of the feed dog.

there are some singer yahoo groups for helping people fix machines if you want some free and useful tech information on repairs

hth enjoy, robb

I got my first machine the same way. I used it for 5 years. It won't hurt to take it to a shop and have it looked at. Singers are good machines and the old ones were made to last half of forever. Mine was a Singer, too, with a knee pedal. I loved that thing. Not as much to screw up as the new computerized ones.

Trisha in MO

Sounds like a good rescue to me. :) I haven't personally met that particular model. What I would suggest you do is take it to a Singer dealer/repair shop. They should be able to get you the missing parts and tune it up. They can at the very least look it over and tell you if it's worth keeping. The older Singers usually are great machines.

Have fun with it, but do beware, once they start following you home like that they tend to keep it up. ;)

Sharon

I can't comment specifically on the 337 (and Singers aren't my favorite machines anyhow), but it's always handy to have a backup machine in the closet. I've got two straight stitchers I use for quilting and topstitching and things where narrow presser feet can really help -- like inside stitched patch pockets.

I'd suggest you might want to talk to the nice folks in the yahoo group "wefixit" -- lots of knowledge to be shared, and sometimes some parts.

You say that as if it were a bad thing.

I love it when sewing machines come to find me... Got a F&R Cub 4 in need of a drive belt on the way.

I'm still waiting for a serger to follow me home, and I haven't had any luck yet.

I haven't either. So I just keep on using the overlock and zigzag stitches on my sewing macine, both of which seem adequate for the work I do.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

** Posted from **

I've gotten some good advice, but so far, no one has said whether the Singer 337 is basically a good machine.

That is, if I get it into "good as new" condition, will I have a good machine, or will everybody on alt.sewing _then_ tell me it's a piece of junk, like they did with my Bernette? Is it likely to be better at stitching evenly? Etc.

I _have_ heard negative things about the newer Singer machines, and good things about the older ones; which category does this fall into?

I don't knoiw the answer to that... This is all I've been able to find on that model, which isn't enough to tell you this vital bit of info, I'm afraid: >

can buy a downloadable or CD version of the manual for this machine here: >

One fella's piece of junk is another's treasure...

Story time!

For my 21st birthday, back in 1977, I wanted a sewing machine. Knowing no different, my parents bought me a Singer something-or-other... It WAS a piece of junk, unfortunately. I could NEVER get the tension to hold correctly, it never made a decent buttonhole, and was a frustrating nightmare the whole time I owned it. Time and time again I'd dig it out to sew, and give in and go back to the 1923 Singer 66 hand-crank I bought as an impoverished student. Eventually, I sold it and a Jones machine (a 15 clone that belonged to my then fiancée) and bought a Frister & Rossman Cub 8, on which I made my wedding dress. I swore then that I'd never buy a new Singer again, and I stuck to that vow for 23 years!

Last year I was given a seized solid 367 - a late 60's model. It looks like it was never used. There was NO fluff, lint or thread in the bobbin case, the machine was clean and bright, and only the outside of the carry case was a bit dusty. Once I got it working again (the tale is on my web site), it worked a treat and has been a very good and worthy member of my 'sewing with kids' herd. It was only seized through lack of use. It needed a bit of a clean out of fossilized grease and some lubrication.

So you might be lucky...

I think it's a '50's machine, and my personal cut-off date is 1964, so you should be ok. Can't make any promises, as I don't know the model.

On the first site Kate recommended to you states it is a 1960s machine, in fact, it resembles one of my aunt's machines that she purchased new in early

1965. Since it was built before the mid-70s, it would be classified as an "An Oldie" but definitely a "Good" machine. That is, unless something is broken that can not be repaired/replaced. Emily

Just a thought...this is primarily a sewing group rather than a vintage sewing machine group, so may be why you haven't gotten an answer to whether it is a 'good' or 'bad' machine.

-Irene

Personally, I have not responded because, despite having had at least a dozen sewing machines in the last 20 years, I've never had THAT model. There are thousands of different models of machines, and most of us have not sewn on even a fraction of them.

The 337 is not generally considered to be a sought-after machine like the 301, 401, 503s are. It has nylon gears, which if they are intact, the machine should be OK, but if they have cracked, can be an expensive fix.

Yep, that is certainly another reason :)

-Irene

it would

i have been collecting Singer SMs for a few years and not once has the 337 ever come up on the radar as a good and desireable machine. I think the price reflects this on ebay.

An asside ... I am not a machine snob as i own several undesireable machines and for all the trash talk they get these machines will work ... if they are setup and adjusted properly. But they take alot of fiddling to adjust properly as they are very sensitive to small changes. I do this all myself and not one would be worth a trip to sew shop for repair.

I suspect the same of the 337 ... if this 337 were clean and in tip top condition it would probably sew ok to good. However, it is probably just not worth taking to a shop to get them to clean and adjust it and repair it (i am guessing it will cost $80-100 for shop to clean adjust and fix) and if the machine is a sensitive kind the shop will not be willing to take the

**time** (expense) to set it up and adjust it to perfection. And it is missing parts that will add costs.

anyways unless you do the work yourself, that is 80-100 dollars you could put into a good machine

hth robb

OTOH, if 80-100 dollars is close to your maximum budget, it might be worth spending that money. I sure bet it would work better than that brand-new White "Jeans Machine" I bought my son that didn't even last 3 months before it was deemed unrepairable by the people who sold it to us.